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Jan 14, 2021 8:24 PM -

24 years after Reena Virk's murder, parole board continues Kelly Ellard's release

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Kelly Ellard and her father, Lawrence, leave the Vancouver courthouse on March 30, 2000. The now 38-year-old woman convicted of murdering teenager Reena Virk near Victoria in 1997 will be allowed to continue her day parole. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Adrian Wyld

The 38 year old woman convicted of murdering teenager Reena Virk near Victoria in 1997 will be allowed to continue her day parole.

The Parole Board of Canada has released its ruling on Kelly Ellard, who now goes by the name of Kerry Sim.

In a decision released Thursday, the board says Sim, now the mother of two young children, remains "positive and compliant" in the community and continues to have high reintegration potential.

Her day parole was expanded last summer to allow her to live away from a residential facility for up to five days each week and the parole board is continuing that order for another six months.

It says Sim's case management team reports she has demonstrated remorse for Virk's murder, takes full responsibility for the attack and believes the best way to show her remorse is to "live a pro-social life in honour of the victim and her family."

Sim was 15 when she and a group of teens beat Virk and then she and an accomplice followed the injured girl, beat her again and drowned her in the Gorge waterway.

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